Chapter 15 : Critical Error

Chapter 15: Critical Error

Dong Bong-su tried to grab the skills with his hand and place them into the skill shortcut slots, but it did not work. All three of those techniques were Passive Skills, ones that were automatically applied without needing to be used explicitly. It was not that he did not know that; he had only tried it as a matter of confirmation.

Thud, whoosh, smack.

He immediately lifted the sword and tried swinging, thrusting, throwing, and blocking.

Then he checked the proficiency right away. All of them had increased by 0.1% each. In other words, if he repeated these actions a thousand times, the proficiency level would become Lv.2. After that, it was obvious that leveling up would gradually become more difficult.

In this way, he discovered yet another method of becoming stronger. He would only know how effective it was once the level went up, but this clearly had its own advantages. Being able to grow stronger without necessarily hunting would bring a great benefit in carrying out the game.

After swinging the sword around a few more times, he closed the Skill Window.

Now there was only one blinking window left.

《Quest》

It was the part Dong Bong-su had paid the least attention to since starting Murim Online. Not only had the Quest Window not been activated until now, but it also did not seem like any quests would appear in the first place.

Click.

Hoping it would be different this time, he pressed the Quest Window, the final one.

At that moment.

Beep-.

[Critical ERROR has occurred! Critical ERROR has occurred! Critical ERROR has occurred! There is no NPC required to proceed with the quest! Because there is no NPC, the quest cannot be progressed!]

A red flashing warning light appeared, and a loud alarm blared as the error message wildly churned through his mind.

‘There is no NPC.’

It became clear now.

Various errors were occurring because of the gap between reality and the system. Strictly speaking, only the Murim Online system and the character called Dong Bong-su were being implemented under the physical laws of this reality and the murim-specific laws unique to this place.

Interpreting it that way.

The reason an unusually severe and fatal error message appeared in the Quest Window was obvious. Unlike skills or stats, the original template that would transform the system—the NPCs—did not exist in this ‘Murim’ to begin with, and so this occurred.

Dong Bong-su did not know much about games, but he did know at least that quests were the core thread running through the entire game. Since something was wrong with something so important, the system naturally had no choice but to make a fuss like this.

Unless beings called NPCs were to spontaneously come into existence in this murim someday, this problem would likely never be resolved.

He immediately closed the Quest Window to block out the machine voice that was growing even louder. At a glance, he had seen several activated quests, but judging from the fact that all of them were marked with X symbols, it was clear that none of those quests could be progressed. They were merely activated in name; without NPCs, they would have no practical effect.

No matter how violently the warning sounded, it was all happening within his Interface, so no one of the Danri Family could hear it, but noise was never welcome.

When hearing was excessively activated, other senses naturally weakened.

The five senses and instinct had to manifest in balance at all times. That was far more advantageous for survival.

And so, without much thought, he abandoned any lingering attachment to quests.

Only then did the world become quiet again.

That silent expanse was his own world—New Murim Online. In reality, the term online did not fit at all, as it was the real world, but considering that a system was implemented, it could be regarded as such to some extent.

“Hoo-.”

Just that brief reverberation from moments ago was enough to make his head throb. Dong Bong-su took one deep breath and steadied his mind.

At last, he had roughly finished checking what he had obtained from his first-ever level-up. Now it was time to organise it all in his head.

Ding ding-.

At the very moment he was about to arrange today’s gains—

A strange chime rang out in his head.

[The activation conditions for Spirit Eye have been met. Spirit Eye is automatically cast.]

[An enemy with a level difference of 10 or more compared to you has approached within 20 meters. 19, 18, 17....]

Ding ding ding, di-ri-ri-ri-ring....

As the numbers decreased, the chime grew increasingly urgent.

‘This is...? Something like an early warning system?’

From the holographic messages floating before him and the pressing chimes, Dong Bong-su was able to infer the efficacy of Spirit Eye.

Murim Online sought to preserve the realism of the game by making all monsters and enemies resemble reality as closely as possible, giving them a sense of physical presence. It was programmed so that, unlike conventional 3D online games, one could not simply look and know an NPC’s level or health. Naturally, all information about NPCs was strictly controlled. Through this, it attempted to differentiate itself from existing 3D online games.

Experience it. Try it. Clash with it, break against it, and find out. Find enjoyment within that.

That was Murim Online’s motto.

By now, much about Murim Online had been uncovered, and information was being shared through the internet, but because of this ‘differentiation policy,’ there had been many cases where people logging into Murim Online for the first time recklessly rushed at enemies with no information whatsoever, only to die.

This policy had always been maintained, and it was no different now.

The same applied to the Testers. Just like ordinary players, they struggled and were left defenseless when facing monsters or enemies for the first time. That was precisely why Tester-exclusive skills were necessary—skills that drastically reduced testing time while making the testing process efficient and realistic.

Among them, the one that maintained a middle ground between realism and efficiency in testing was the skill **Spirit Eye**.

Spirit Eye was a skill that encouraged more realistic testing by providing Testers not with complete information about their opponents, but only minimal warnings about danger. With this skill, Testers could approach and observe enemies they had no information about in a more cautious and detailed manner. It also played the role of reducing unnecessary character deaths, thereby shortening the time required for testing. That was Spirit Eye.

Seven Senses.

The moment Dong Bong-su understood the effect of Spirit Eye, that term came to mind. A sixth sense was a perception based on vague premonitions or signs, but Spirit Eye went beyond that by scanning all enemies within a 20-meter radius and issuing warnings—wasn’t that truly astonishing?

He possessed an unparalleled sixth sense, and now he had even obtained a seventh sense.

The five senses, the sixth sense, and the seventh sense.

He, Dong Bong-su, was gradually becoming a monster.

[14, 13, 12, 11....]

Even as all this happened, time continued to flow, and the ‘enemy’ detected by Spirit Eye kept approaching the stable.

But Dong Bong-su was not particularly worried about it.

Spirit Eye would have been programmed to scan anyone approaching. Moreover, the original targets of such scans were not users, but the NPCs of Murim Online.

Monsters, bosses, and the like.

But here, he was the only user, and actual Murim Online NPCs did not exist. Or perhaps some implemented entities did exist, but if that were the case, the system would notify him. Through a system-based method such as a quest alarm.

If that was so.

That was an ‘NPC of this place.’

The people of this world. And if there was even a warning sound indicating danger, then nine times out of ten, it would be a martial artist.

And if the martial artist was now approaching—

‘He cannot be an enemy.’

Dong Bong-su judged the approaching ‘enemy’ to not be an enemy.

[10....]

The count passed 10. It meant the target had come within 10 meters. Dong Bong-su remained calm. He merely rose slowly from his seat.

The reason Dong Bong-su judged the approaching ‘enemy’ as not an enemy lay in the ‘enemy’s movement speed.

To begin with, setting aside the fact that there were not many people bold enough to infiltrate the Danri Family compound, if it were an intruder who had secretly entered the Danri Family, they would not be moving that slowly.

That meant the one currently approaching was an expert within the Danri Family. Moreover, someone higher and stronger than expected.

He did not yet know exactly how large a gap a difference of ten levels was. But considering the effort and the price of lives it had taken just to reach Level 2, he could infer that the gap was enormous.

If one were to kill only ordinary people until reaching Level 10, just how many would that take? Thousands? Tens of thousands?

Perhaps....

‘Hundreds of thousands?’

He could not even calculate it, nor could he imagine it.

Someone who had grown strong through training worth that many lives was approaching.

His mind was rapidly narrowing down the list of candidates.

At the same time, Dong Bong-su immediately stored all the basic equipment he was wearing into his Inventory and took out and put on his original clothes. It seemed possible to have the items directly pour out of the Inventory and layer themselves onto his body, but he was not yet able to control the Inventory to such a fine degree.

[5, 4, 3....]

Before he knew it, Dong Bong-su had returned to being Ma-a-sam.

Dull eyes, an ordinary face, a slightly gaping mouth, and shabby clothes. Even if Sosam were to come back to life, he would not be able to distinguish which of the two, himself or Dong Bong-su, was the real Sosam.

Creeeak-.

The old door swung open, moonlight seeped in, and two long shadows were cast into the stable. A middle-aged man with his hands clasped behind his back and a sturdily built man in his twenties entered the stable one after the other.

They were Gi Dae-hyo and Gi Man-ji. The two had spent the entire day investigating the Suicide Plague and had only now returned to the Danri Family.

They had come all the way to this squalid stable for the sake of the final investigation.

As soon as Gi Dae-hyo entered the stable, he did not waste words and went straight to the point.

“Are you Sosam?”

“....”

Dong Bong-su remained faithful to his role as a mute, saying nothing and only blinking his eyes while putting on a startled expression. In truth, he was not very surprised, but outwardly, it was the very image of being taken aback.

Dong Bong-su knew Gi Dae-hyo and Gi Man-ji well. Over the past few months, he had not only prepared for leveling up but had also thoroughly studied the Danri Family. Among those efforts, the core focus had been investigating its people.

The moment he saw Gi Dae-hyo, he realized that he had come to see him because of the matter of the Suicide Plague. His current face was merely one of several prepared fake faces.

The candidates for the ‘enemy’ he had narrowed down in that brief moment were three.

The Danri Family Head, the Black Five Division Leader, and the Cross Heavenly Sword Division Leader.

He had finished preparing an act tailored to any one of the three. At the same time, he had also thought through the reasons each of them might come looking for him.

In the end, the one who entered the stable was Gi Dae-hyo, the Black Five Division Leader, and he adjusted his facial acting accordingly.

And.

There was only one reason the Black Five Division Leader Gi Dae-hyo would come here now.

“Did you kill Machil?”

Machil’s death.

That alone.